Five Huskers Earn Academic All-Big Honors

Five Nebraska volleyball players were among the 50 student-athletes named to the 2003 Academic All-Big 12 volleyball team announced Tuesday. All five Huskers were first-team selections, including seniors Jenae Dowling (finance), Anna Schrad (exercise science) and Sara Westling (elementary education), sophomore Michelle Lynch (biological sciences) and redshirt freshman Kelsey Fautsch (general studies).

Dowling and Schrad are both three-time first-team picks, while Westling earned first-team honors last year and second-team honors as a sophomore in 2001. Lynch and Fautsch were both first-time nominees.

Kansas State and Texas Tech both placed the most student-athletes on the teams with seven each. Texas A&M senior libero Rebecca Wynalda was nominated with a 4.00 grade-point average for the second year in a row.

Nominated by each institution’s director of student-athlete support services and the media relations offices, the volleyball academic all-league squad consisted of 42 first-team members combined with eight on the second team. First-team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA, while the second team honorees are those who have a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.

To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 average or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of her team’s scheduled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation are eligible.